The Flames looked every bit like a team that figured it would be an easy victory against the cellar-dwelling Blackhawks and suffered an all-too-familiar fate to end their road trip in defeat
You earn your breaks and the Calgary Flames received exactly what they deserved in Sunday afternoon’s 4-3 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks.
Yes, the bottom-feeding, without half of their lineup due to injury — including hot-shot rookie sensation Connor Bedard — Blackhawks.
With a chance to finish a four-game road trip with three wins and actually pull into the logjam for the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot, the Flames (17-18-5) delivered a minor-league performance against a mostly minor-league Blackhawks roster.
“Not good enough,” captain Mikael Backlund told the media in Chicago. “If we want to be a playoff team, that's a game we've got to win — find a way to win. It wasn't good enough.”
Oh sure, the Flames were victimized by a few bad bounces and saw a frantic push fall just short, but those issues should never have come into play had they put in a full-fledge effort from the drop of the puck.
Nazem Kadri scored twice and Andrew Mangiapane tallied once, with both of them netting lucky-break goals of their own, but it was not enough against an under-manned, bottom-rung Windy City squad that went into the clash having lost five consecutive games and with only two victories in 13 games.
“They were in a situation that we needed to take advantage of,” coach Ryan Huska said. “We didn't do what we needed to do.”
Now the Flames return home for Tuesday’s clash with another cellar-dweller in the Ottawa Senators (14-21-0) before leaving the Stampede City for games in Arizona and Las Vegas.
Here are more takeaways about the situation now facing the Flames.
Fatigue factor follies
Facts: This game was Calgary’s fifth in eight days, all in different cities and three time zones.
Also fact: Every team in the league at some point has a tough schedule, and winning squads overcome it.
It gets no easier this week, which is why this game was of utmost importance. Honestly, does the NHL schedule maker need a map? The Flames fly to Calgary from Chicago for one game and then fly down to Phoenix and Las Vegas.
The Flames’ players keep insisting they are a playoff team. Overcome the adversity and prove it.
History repeating
The Flames chased a playoff spot all last season but fell short, and among the myriad reasons was losing all three games to the Blackhawks — who gutted their roster in the hopes of drafting Bedard, a move that paid off.
Yeah, yeah, different year, different team and different atmosphere, but the same result against the Blackhawks in the first of three meetings this season.
As crazy as it sounds, it appears the Flames are taking the same pathway to the same destination.
Cautionary words
The easy comment about Calgary’s poor execution is to call it a byproduct of fatigue.
It looked more like a bunch of players who figured this was going to be a game to grab some free cookies, veered off the gameplan and then could not get things on track.
I could be wrong, but Huska’s words may have alluded to that being the case when he discussed the road trip as a whole.
“We did some things in Minnesota we liked. Nashville, I thought we played pretty well,” he said. “And then I thought we let some parts of our game get away from us. (In Chicago), we got a lot of individualistic play and I think that hurt us, especially in the second period.”
Random thought of the day
Shouldn’t Calgary fans on Team Rebuild be celebrating a loss to the anemic Blackhawks?
If Calgary’s management indeeds wants the players to decide the organization’s direction, performances like this make the mandate clear.